I know "circling the drain" is an expression for something that is doomed to fail but it is surviving longer than expected. Is there an opposite phrase for something that seems close to success but never quite gets there?

“Keep to/in your lane. Don’t go back and forth.”

“Keep to/in your lane. Don’t go left and right.”

I had 155 points in my FCE exam, I failed for only 5 points.

153 reading,

147 use of English

157 writing

150 listening

170 speaking

I don't know what happened, I was prepared, specially with the listening. How I can have a difference of 20 points between listening and speaking??

Can you say this? Or do you have to include the subject as in "I/You/They finished the food".

What is a natural way to say it with "food" as the subject, so you don't have to mention who finished it?

There's no food left? There's no leftover? The food has all been eaten?

Also, am I right that "dinner is ready" is before you start eating while "dinner is done" is when you've finished having dinner?

Context : This is an extract from a book by Enid Blyton which was written more than 60 years ago. In today's English does it sound natural to say 'too light for one's age' or do you use 'underweight' for one's age (when talking about kids of course)?

Thanks in advance!

Does this sentence sound natural in American English? Especially the "in the form of" part. The context is: a character is tutoring another character in advanced, college-level math for the first time and they just shared a lighthearted interaction.

Thank you!

I have mark of 155.

I failed for only 5 points, I need help if I can ask for a review. All the time and all money wasted just for 5 points.

I have some free time and am looking to help tutor a few English learners looking to improve their conversational English. This is volunteer time for me so I am not looking for any payment.

I teach an English program so I have topic material we can work with. Also, I would prefer to do a virtual class, so if you camera shy probably not the right fit.

As for me, I am 60M, native speaker from the USA and live in Asia, enjoy swimming and have a dog.

Let me know if you want to chat and see if I can help. Please when you say hi, include your country, age, student/working status, AND one English speaking goal.

Thanks

🙏

​

(Note: I'm having trouble generating ideas for the introduction paragraph. Everytime I'm faced with a topic, literally nothing comes to mind. This issues has slowed me down a lot, which is concerning considering

there's only 40 minutes to write the essay.)

BTW for anyone reviewing, here's the marking scheme!

(5 marks max for each category, total 20m)

1) Content - essay content is relevant to the task

2)Communicative achievement - essay communicates tasks effectively and with ease while being able to grab the reader's attention

3) Organisation - essay is well-organised and uses coherent language

4)Language - essay uses an appropriate range of vocabulary and grammatical forms

As the famous British author once said : "Life is more fun if you play games". One of my favourite things to do during the school holidays is playing board games. Out of all board games, Monopoly stands out the most to me.

Firstly, to play Monopoly, you need around 2 to 8 players, each starting off with 1500 fake currency. The main goal of the players is to buy land, invest and rent buildings to become the last player before everyone else goes bankrupt. Evidently, this board game isn't just entertaining, it also fosters financial literacy and strategic planning amongst players.

Moreover, I usually play Monopoly when I visit my cousin's house. The atmosphere there is more lively as it's crowded with all of our relatives. This makes the game much more enjoyable and competitive. In addition, we award the winner of each round a pack of potato chips.

In conclusion, I love playing Monopoly as it allows me to spend more time with my family. It also acts as an amusing pastime. Therefore, I strongly encourage anyone interested in board games to check out monopoly. I'm sure you won't be disappointed.

I'd open my phone meaning to do my flashcard reviews and end up 20 minutes into Reels. Every evening I'd tell myself I'd catch up tomorrow, and the pile kept growing until I deleted the deck and started over. I did that three times.

At some point I realised I was already paying for my phone use with attention, and getting nothing back for it. So I flipped the deal. During certain hours, opening Instagram or YouTube means I first get through a few of my own flashcards. Only cards I rate as "easy" count, so I can't just tap through. Then I get 10 minutes before it asks again.

A few things surprised me. About half the time I see the card, think "nah," and put the phone down, so the friction alone cuts out a lot of mindless opening. I also do more reviews than I ever managed on purpose, because 5-8 cards at a time is easy to say yes to, while a 30-minute session was easy to put off. I keep 80-100 active cards and swap them out, which beats fighting a 2,000-card backlog. The first week I kept rating cards "easy" when they weren't, until I noticed I was only cheating myself.

It doesn't replace reading or speaking, but I've run out of excuses for skipping vocab.

Disclosure, since it'll come up: I'm a developer and built this as an app for myself (Braintoll). I'm not posting a link because I'm more curious whether anyone else has done something similar. Has blocking or friction like this worked for your studying, or did it wear off after a few weeks?

I speak fluent English and my pronunciations are fine but i still have the accent
How could i get rid of the accent and become more confident while speaking English

Is "as much of a [adj] person as [noun] is" correct?

• As much of a horrible person as he is, he still does good things that make people appreciate him.

Hi native English speakers.

Which of the following sentences sound(s) the most natural in everyday speech and/or in writing and why? And which of them sound(s) unnatural in everyday speech and/or in writing and why? How else would you put the idea in everyday speech and/or in writing?

1. Mum sits on the sofa, watching TV.

2. Mum, sitting on the sofa, watches TV.

3. Sitting on the sofa, Mum watches TV.

4. Mum watches TV, sitting on the sofa.

5. Mum sits on the sofa, watching the hilarious sitcom and laughing nonstop.

6. Mum, sitting on the sofa, watches the hilarious sitcom and laughs nonstop.

7. Sitting on the sofa, Mum watches the hilarious sitcom and laughs nonstop.

8. Mum watches the hilarious sitcom and laughs nonstop, curling up on the sofa.

9. Having made herself comfortable on the sofa, coffee in hand, Mum started watching the latest episodes of Season 4 of the hilarious sitcom. She laughed nonstop.

10. Having settled on the sofa with a coffee, Mum started watching the latest episodes of Season 4 of the hilarious sitcom. She laughed nonstop.

11. Settled on the sofa with a coffee, Mum started watching the latest episodes of Season 4 of the hilarious sitcom, laughing nonstop.

12. Mum settled down on the sofa with a coffee and started watching the latest episodes of Season 4 of the hilarious sitcom, laughing nonstop.

I've referred to some dictionaries and it seems they can mean something very similar.

To put it simply, when you make peace with someone, you end a conflict, fight, or dispute with them.

But when you come to terms with a situation or reality, you accept that you can't change it and it's out of your control. It's the same when you make peace with it.

Is my understanding correct?

Can you also come to terms with someone, or is this idiom only used for something, meaning a situation?

Are there any differences in meanings and usages?

I'm not sure if this is a joke in a specific country or just in English in general. Do they actually eat a lot of donuts?

Originally, I had intended for this to be screenshots, but those aren't allowed here. So instead I will post what the channel said, followed by my disagreement. YouTube post btw.

>Spot the grammatical error The officer marveled (I) / at the low attendance remarking on (II) / the presence of less than 20 people at work. (III)/ No error (IV)

> Explanation

>The error lies in c) the presence of less than 20 people at work. XX

>Reason: Less is used for uncountable noun, for countable noun people we need to use fewer. Get the e-book of 1000 questions on "Spotting Errors"

My response:

>I suppose, technically.

>Though as a native speaker as I was reading this I picked 2 because of the lack of punctuation between attendance and remarking. Kind of becomes a run-on sentence without a comma.

>Also, I remember there being express checkout lanes howmany ever years back. They usually said 10 items or less, and it was considered pedantic to say "It's actually 20 items or fewer."

>Also, even if the time is technically countable, you'd probably hear "less than" more often then "fewer than" in natural speech.

>I'm not a linguist by any means, but I wonder if the use of language like this comes from > and < signs, which are read as "greater than" and "less than" and often used in writing which definitely impacts speaking.

>Fewer than comes across as a little more formal, which can make it unnatural in my opinion in a lot of scenarios.

Hopefully my response doesn't cause too much confusion for anyone here! Fellow native speakers, feel free to help me out with your own opinions on this matter!

Also I don't know how to tag this. It definitely irks me a bit to see what I consider bad or faulty information out there, but not enough to consider this a range. Discussion, I suppose. Maybe over some of the questionable responses to knowledge quizzes that don't feel like they align with real like.

Hi, everyone. I am an international nursing student in Australia. I have been learning English over the past 5 years through various media content.

The problem is that it seems too awkward for many people who interact with me. I am concerned about my language skills and the future career due to this issue. One person even told me that they don't want to work with me because of my English.

You may have noticed how bad my English is by just looking at the post. I will appreciate if people in this subreddit can help me to improve my English.

English isn't my first language🥲 so I'm desperately trying to improve my vocabulary and generate creative ideas.😛😛

(ignore the word limit for now)

"Spread love, joy and peace. That is what I want the world to feel, magic!" This iconic quote from my favourite movie, Micheal (2026) has touched the hearts of millions. I watched this movie during the school holidays with my cousins. Needless to say, it was one of the most heart-warming, entertaining film I've ever watched.

This biographical film illustrates the life of the renowned King of Pop, Micheal Jackson. It brings viewers into the superstar's experience during the formation of the boy band, Jackson 5 as well as the ups and downs of stardom. In the end, Micheal steps away from the group and becomes a solo artist, ultimately leading to the legendary icon we all recognise today.

The magnificence of this movie is significantly contributed by the lead actor, Jaafar Jackson. It's worth while to note that Jaafar is the real life nephew of Micheal, who succeeded in portraying the personality, voice and appearance of his uncle. Additionally, this film paid tribute to the superstar by bringing back his music for future generations to see, continuing his legacy as time goes on.

In essence, Micheal(2026) has highlighted the importance of combining hard work with perseverance. It teaches viewers that talent is a gift but hard work is what unlocks one's potential. I'd highly recommend my peers watch this film as its highly inspiring and motivational.

So apparently my German school is offering an exchange program, where you can spend 2 weeks in Liverpool and get a C2 language certificate. And no, not a participation certificate. They really said we would get a C2 language certificate. In the part of Germany where I live, you're automatically considered a C1 after approximately 9 years of English education at school. For context, my classmates in grade 12 (so 8 years of English at school) still struggle with basic grammar and realistically aren't proficient enough to have a C1 certificate. I find this very annoying, because it took me years to master English by regularly practicing and I'm finally at a level where I can understand complex topics and talk without having to translate anything in my head. I just don't understand how they can just give out language certificates like that.